In her room, Mandy stood stone faced with shock. She stared at Matt on her bed. When they heard the call through their com-badges, she grabbed a simple pull on dress from her closet. Throwing it on, she called up her psionic double and sent her down to investigate.

For a moment, she closed her eyes to focus on her duplicate. When she encountered the scene in the kitchen, she shook her head breaking the connection and dissolving her double. She looked at Matt with wider eyes. "Snow's collapsed." The two of them rushed down to assist.

Entering the kitchen, they found Arcas at Sharon's side. Mandy dropped to her knees and took hold of Sharon's wrist to check her pulse. Looking up to Matt with concern, she shook her head.

"Splitz, Venus and I are on our way." Astral’s voice cracked through her com-badge.

"Understood," Mandy said. As they waited, she accepted the towels Pierre handed her, placing them under Sharon’s head trying to make her comfortable.

When the others arrived, Venus assessed the situation and took charge. She urged and guided Mandy to her feet and back, away from Sharon. Then, she and Venus collected Sharon. Between the two of them, they took care of her, leaving the others in the kitchen.

Mandy was tense as she leaned against the counter and watched Matt go to the refrigerator. Still feeling flushed from what happened, added to the concern for Sharon, she gladly accepted the bottle of Coke he offered.

"I'm sure she'll be okay, she's in good hands." He said.

"Right, just another normal day around here." She quipped. She forced a smirk to the younger students with a grimace to Matt.

"I know what you're thinking," He said. "Something's not right."

"Something's going to happen and it's usually trouble." Mandy said.

Arcas stepped closer to her. Standing behind her, he leaned in close to whisper. "Then maybe you should dress for the occasion."

She blushed and gasped, turning to him as she scrunched her nose and pursed her lips. His snicker only made her mad and she huffed, returning to her room.

Unable to find him, Tami wandered back to the parlor. She set her hands to her hips while pursing her lips. Benny not only had a way to block the telepaths, he had given her the slip.

Standing in the doorway, she drummed her fingers on her thigh trying to think like the tracker he was. He was good, among the better trackers The Consortium had but why he was there and why Pierce hadn't mentioned it was beyond her.

As Arcas approached her, she snapped her fingers with an idea. She took up her cell phone from the holder on her belt. She held up her finger to Arcas as she called Pierce.

"Benny no longer works for us." Pierce said. "If you can, bring him in. We have questions for him."

"Yes, Sir, understood," she said.

Just as she was about to make pleasantries while Arcas two women by them. "Running to the kitchen is not a good sign. Is some one burning a something?"

Arcas sniffed the air with his bear-like nose. "Wait here while I check it out." He left her by the main stairs.

Tami sat on the third step, close to the wall. In waiting, she played a game of Mine Sweeper on her phone.

When the women emerged from the kitchen, they supported Sharon between them. The woman she met, Venus, held a serious expression and shook her head as they passed.

"What happened?" Tami asked.

Venus looked from one to the other as they made their way to the elevator. "That's what we're going to find out."

Arcas joined them soon after, wagging his fingers for Tami to approach him.

"I need to do a perimeter check. Care to help?" Arcas motioned to Tami with a nod towards the front door. "There are some things the security cameras can't pick up, but they can’t beat this." Winking, he tapped the side of his nose.

"Lead the way," Tami said. She stood and placed her phone in its holder.

Out the back door, Arcas took a deep breath to take in the surrounding scents. How anything could get past our defenses. This place makes Fort Knox look vulnerable."

Tami grimaced at the claim, skeptical as always. She heard something scream as it jumped from around the corner of the building. It grabbed her, burning her forearms. Her instincts kicked in and she let herself fall back to a roll as she fought with the creature.

"What the...?" Arcas raised an eyebrow. "Looks fire based." Arcas held out his hand and tried to manipulate the fire it created, turning it back on the creature.

That moment Tami unleashed her hydrokinesis. Her water met his flames creating a cloud of steam. She tried taking advantage of it, finding her aim and throwing a left hook to break the creature free of her arm.

The small daemon sprung away as Arcas dove for it catching it by its scrawny neck. He shook the creature and growled. "Who sent you?" he asked.

The little daemon squirmed and with a big silly grin, it spread out its arms. "Mm dah!" and with that it exploded.

Startled, Arcas tried to absorb as much of the heat and flames as possible "Okay, that was useful. Torque, can you put out the bushes?"

"Copy that," she shot a burst of water towards the burning bush. As the flames were drenched, she turned and made an assessment of her body for damage then nodded to Arcas. Examining her right arm she cringed and grimaced from the pain. "I think we found and lost the intruder."

"I agree," Arcas took off his scorched shirt. "Let's keep going. There might be more."

"After I return to the med-lab." She said. "This is going to leave a mark."

The force that attacked Sharon dissipated. It left behind the horrific images and flashes of light through her mind. It left her body trembling, her felt matted and covered in a cold sweat comparable to the effects of night terrors.

Unable to focus, she sought relief by closing her eyes only to be faced with the bursts of light and horrific images of something that couldn’t be described. She tried reaching out with her telepathy, seeking her friends but all she found were the horrors placed in her mind.

There were images of the team, she knew the faces, younger and tortured but she knew them. Some were chained to walls; another onto a stone table, a very large muscular blonde woman flashed her fist back-handed across Splitz’s face.

The faces blurred, smeared into the light and graven images. There was no place in her mind for Sharon to escape not even from the sensations of sheer terror and fear as she watched what unfolded. Her own memories of that time flooded in behind the implants, the echo of Arcas’ telepathic call to her that sent her back to find the destruction of the manor. She knew it; she remembered it and did not want to.

It was a time of pain and loss, of failures, and disillusionment of humility within her. In her minds self, she envisioned crying out with her most strong force telepathy, crying for everything, the collapse of team X-treme, the death of innocence and the moment she believed her mother had been murdered.

The explosion of Daunte’s invaded all the images, flooding her mind with the smoke and flames billowing into the sky. Through it, Garston’s face appeared. His presence comforted her, sooth her and silenced the visions. No words were spoken as the torrential events vanished from her thoughts bringing her peace, leaving her alone with Garston.

Rest Sharon, everything will be fine now. He said. There was a soft echo as he faded from her mind.

Slowly, Sharon opened her eyes and blinked at the harshness of the fluorescent lights above. Jolting awake, she looked around and tried to sit up. "Garston?"

Venus set a hand on her shoulder to force her back down. "Easy Sharon, you’ve been out for quite a while now." She tried offering a warm and friendly smile.

Sharon looked at her, furrowing her brow then darted her eyes to Astral. She looked back and forth several times. "What's wrong? I can't hear your thoughts."

They looked to each other then Venus sighed and grasped Sharon’s hand. "You were screaming painfully, I tried to get inside but whatever attacked you prevented that." She hesitated, glancing to Astral then back. "Garston intervened. He suppressed your abilities for the time being."

"The creature Arcas and Torque encountered seems to have been the source." Astral stood off to the side with her arms folded. "We're still not sure what it was, so we don't know the extent of your injury."

Sharon rubbed at her forehead. She was trying to let it sink in to make sense of what Venus was saying. It would have been easier if it wasn’t for the massive headache she had. She felt Venus pat her shoulder.

“Get some rest Snow; we’ll get this figured out.” Venus said.

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather be up in my own room.” Sharon said.

“I’ll see her upstairs,” Astral offered.

Venus shook her head and walked away as Astral helped Snow. Giving her a shoulder to lean on, and wrapping her arm around Snow’s own shoulders they made their way up to the main level and the back stairs to the woman’s dorm rooms. Inside room seven, Astral stood protectively while Sharon changed to some sleepwear then slipped under the covers.

As she got comfortable, Astral actually tucked her in. “Is there anything I can do?”

Sharon rubbed at her forehead again. “Yeah, there is, would you call my mom?”

Astral nodded. “Usual code again?” She asked.

“Right,” Sharon said. She adjusted her pillow and sunk into it. “Thanks Astral.”

Her friend closed the curtains and turned off the light then left the room to make the call

Matt had witnessed the whole thing, but unlike what had grown into the usual for him. Having followed Torque and Arcas, he stayed invisible and fixated upon the daemon before the blast sent him flying back into a wall, knocking him out.

Coming too he looked around seeing students still there, starting to think he was just having an hallucination until he heard their words. They spoke of the creature, and their concern for Sharon. Some, those who had been there when Matt had first become a student, remembered but didn’t speak of it. Matt knew they didn’t want to share the horrors they went through. Forcing himself to his feet, he moved on.

"We'll do a perimeter check." Setes said to his companion. The words seemed to ring in Matt's ears as he turned to them walking and they approached him.

Phasing into visibility just before them he'd speak for the first time in what felt like ages to him. "They're gone....for now...and believe me, if there were anymore, there would be nothing you two could do. Trust me..." His eyes would move from the two to Mandy, only finding her gone.

He'd have to find her later. Returning his gaze to the pair he was talking to. "The only things that can be found when they come are horror, horrors beyond what you two can even imagine. You weren't here when they first came to the Mansion. But those of us who were remember what we went through. The best thing to do is to stick with the herd, than to wander alone." He wasn't sure if the two would head him, frankly, he didn’t care at the moment, he just wanted, needed, to be with Mandy.

Looking to the dirt on the ground he noticed the freshest tracks, he hoped they were Mandy's. Following them to the rose garden, he knew where to go from there. Matt phased to invisibility.

Making his way through the garden labyrinth he pushed through a hidden door, only vines blocked the way here, no thorns to worry about. Coming through he found her sitting on a stone bench with a very unhappy look about her. She nursed a beer which was something he had never seen her do. Sitting next to her, he revealed himself. The place she was in, only they knew, aside from Garston who knew every inch of the campus.

"Hey beautiful..." He said, forcing a smile through his nervous fear. He knew she'd recognize it as a forced smile, but he recognize the smile she forced too.

"You see it too?" he asked, nervously.

Mandy nodded slowly. "What was it?"

He could hear the hatred for whatever it was that attacked Sharon in her quivering voice. Shaking his head slightly he'd look deep into her eyes. "It's best if you don't know..."

"Matt you can't decide what I should know and don't...I'll look into the security tapes if I have too!" She persisted.

"Mandy, don't...nothing scares me except the thought of losing you, so if this has scared me so much I couldn’t help Sharon, then why would you want to see it?" His voice was almost pleading, like any other guy; he hated admitting when he was scared, or what he was afraid of. Not that he had a big list: losing Mandy, his little brother, and what the daemon signified still existed, what he had had random nightmares over for years.

Closing her eyes forcing back the urge to do anything irrational to him, she was in no mood to be told what to do, not even from Matt. Maybe it was the beer, or her emotions at play, but she returned to the mansion, she had to see the tapes. She had to know. She had to remember.

From behind her, she could hear Matt's calls for her to stop, summoning her back to him. As much as she hated it, she ignored him as she rushed through maze of bushes.

Mandy was angry all right, something was going on and she felt she’d been involved with it before. Her instincts screamed for her to remember what she was not able to. Her mind reflected on what she did remember; a time that to her felt like the beginning of the end for many things.

Filled with the sensations, she swerved around barely stopping at the French doors. “You’re either with me or you’re not!” She said.

Not waiting for his response, she swung the door open and charged inside. She was tense, entering that military mode she’d learned from her time in CAP and being an Air Force officer’s daughter. She simply glanced at others as she passed them. Even Arcas offered her a warm greeting as he spoke with Zetes.

“What’s the rush, Splitz?” Zetes asked.

She was too preoccupied with her thoughts to answer, and then Matt appeared in front of her, grabbing hold of her arm. “Don’t do this Mandy, please.”

Sucking in her breath, she released it slowly. “I’m giving you three seconds to let go of my arm.” She said. There was a clear undertone of threat to her voice. “One….”

“I know what this is and I remember how hard it was for you.” Matt said. He bravely stepped closer. “Trust me, you don’t want to remember.”

She jerked her arm free from his grasp. “Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t want to remember but I need to know.”

“What’s going on here?” Zetes asked. As their leader, he was not about to be ignored and placed himself in their path.

“I need to see the security footage.” Mandy said.

“We were about to review them,” He said. “Why don’t you join us?”

“Bad idea…” Matt started.

Zetes raised his hand. “It’s all right Hollow, I understand where you’re coming from but I think she can handle it.” He set a hand to her shoulder as he guided them to the lower levels and the security room.

Inside, Venus was seated at the controls going through the various recordings. They watched the fight Arcas and Torque had along with several others.

Mandy paid close attention, not sure what she was looking for. She just knew there was something familiar about all of it. She was shaking her head slowly when she saw it, the daemon that made things click for her. A fiery little red beast bloated itself and turned into a bouncing yellow smiley face. It attacked two students then zipped down the hall with a cackle.

“Mojo,” Matt said.

Unconsciously, Mandy stepped back from the monitors as the memories flooded back; the invasion, the capture and imprisonment, being shackled to a dungeon wall.

It made her sick to remember, to see what the camera’s recorded. The little girl inside her, that still cried for her father, urged her to run to Sharon. The mature and trained Psionic stood firm with a clenched jaw as the memories invaded. She closed her eyes, refusing to tolerate the emotions and pain from the past. She barely felt the hand on her shoulder.

“Careful Splitz, you don’t want to be like Arcas.” Zetes said. The concern was clear in his voice. “I remember as well as you do.”
She shook her head and took a step back. “You weren’t over there. It was like being in hell.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, I do regret that,” Zetes gently squeezed her shoulder. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with things will be different.”

“They damn well better be.” She said. Her firm tone surprised everyone, including herself. She turned on her heel and stepped out of the room.

Reaching the main levels, she crossed paths with Arcas and Torque emerging from Garston’s office. She folded her arms and was about to say something when a hand clapped down on her shoulder.

“Get back down there Splitz,”

Freezing, she turned her head slowly to see Zetes as he lifted his hand and pointed over his shoulder.

“Sim Training,” He ordered. "It's the best way to get it out."

“I was going to see Sharon.” She claimed. What she was really wanted to do was find her Glock and do some damage.

Zetes motioned with his hand again. “I think you need time in the training room."